It is noteworthy that the DAI was closely affiliated with
the German-American Bund, a subversive Nazi organization in
the United States. The DAI's official periodical, "Germandom
Abroad" (Deutschtum im Ausland), was edited during the war
Walter Kappe, former press chief of the Bund (3258-PS).
Walter Kappe and Fritz Gissibl, another former leader in the
Bund, established on the premises of the DAI in Stuttgart an
organization called "Comradeship USA." The purpose of this
"Comradeship USA." was to maintain during the war an
organization for all Nazi Party members who had been active
in the Bund in the United States (3258-PS). Even before the
outbreak of the war, in the spring of 1939, Walter Kappe had
undertaken to collect a complete archive of Nazi activities
in the U. S. on behalf of the DAI and the Nazi Party (3258-
PS).

The success of this world-wide fifth column directed by Hess
now a matter of historical record. Hess himself guided the
subversive foreign groups which he had created until the day
when the conspirators were ready to annex the countries
which they had undermined.

Thus, the annexation of Austria was principally due to the

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efforts of the Nazi Party's work within that country under
the orders of Hess. As early as 1934 Hess had appointed
Reinthaler leader of the Nazi peasants in Austria, and thus
placed him in a position to take over the leadership of the
Nazi Fifth Column in Austria (812-PS). Hess took a major
part in the negotiations carried on by Seyss-Inquart and
other members of the conspiracy in preparation of the
Anschluss (3254-PS; 3425-PS). When on 12 March 1938 Germany
invaded Austria, Hess, accompanied by Himmler, was the first
member of the conspiracy to arrive in Vienna at noon on the
same day (L-292). The next day Hess signed the decree by
which the conspirators destroyed the independence of Austria
(2307-PS; 3075-PS).

Once the conspirators had achieved their aim, Hess did not
hesitate to admit publicly that he had approved of the steps
which led to the final subjection of Austria. On 24 July
1938 he addressed a meeting held on the fourth anniversary
of the assassination of Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss by
members of the 89th SS Regiment. He devoted the larger part
of his speech to a justification of that assassination (L-
273).

When the conspirators turned their attention to their next
victim, Czechoslovakia, Hess was again in the forefront
directing the German fifth-column in the Sudetenland. In his
speech at the annual meeting of the Foreign Organization of
the NSDAP on 28 August 1938, Hess declared that Nazi Germany
was giving full backing to the demands of the Sudeten German
agitators. What such support meant in fact became very clear
when Hess pointed to the success of the Nazi policy in
Austria (3258-PS). All through the summer of 1938 Hess was
engaged in consultations with Karl H. Frank and Konrad
Henlein, leaders of the Nazi Sudeten German Party (3061-PS).

A few months later Hess could mark up another success for
his fifth-column. When the Munich Agreement forced
Czechoslovakia to surrender the Sudeten territory to
Germany, Hess went to Reichenberg, the capital of that
district, as Hitler's representative in order to accept the
official incorporation of the Sudeten German Party into the
Nazi Party on 5 November 1938. In his address on that
occasion he emphasized repeatedly that the Nazi conspirators
had been ready to go to war for the possession of the
Sudetenland (3204-PS).

Hess also put his signature to the Act of 14 April 1939
setting up the government of the Sudetenland as an integral
part of the Reich (3076-PS).

Later during the same year, after the conspirators had
loosed their first aggressive war, Hess signed the laws
incorporating first

[Page 475]

Danzig and then a large portion of Poland into the Reich
(3077-PS; see also Decree 8 October 1939 (RGBl 1939, Part I,
p. 2042); Decree of 12 October 1939, Part I, p.-2077).

When in July 1941 the Nazi conspirators occupied Greece, the
members of the local Nazi Party were ready to take over as
an auxiliary Army service (3258-PS).

Thus, wherever the conspirators sent their invading armies
Hess' fifth-column had prepared the soil.

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